Malkin, Murray help Penguins defeat Oilers

EDMONTON -- Evgeni Malkin scored a power-play goal with 7:37 left in the third period, and Matt Murray made 35 saves for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 3-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Wednesday.

Patric Hornqvist and Conor Sheary scored for Pittsburgh (8-5-1), and Phil Kessel and Kris Letang each had two assists. The Penguins had lost two in a row.

"For the whole team, this was a big effort for us," Hornqvist said. "We all played really hard. We went back to the old school, winning one-on-one battles out there. When we do that, we have a good team, and obviously the power play helped us to win the game."

Sheary tied it 2-2 with 22 seconds left in the second period on a pass from Sidney Crosby in front, seconds after Edmonton center Connor McDavid just missed tipping in a centering pass from Patrick Maroon on the rush against Murray.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl scored for Edmonton (3-7-1). McDavid had two assists, and Cam Talbot made 27 saves.

"This one is pretty hard to swallow right now," Nugent-Hopkins said. "We were right there the whole game. There wasn't much separating us. If anything, I thought we outplayed them a little bit."

Hornqvist scored on the power play 56 seconds into the second period to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead, tipping a point shot from Letang past Talbot.

Nugent-Hopkins tied it 1-1 on the power play at 6:36. Maroon swept a rebound off the end boards to Nugent-Hopkins in front.

Draisaitl gave Edmonton a 2-1 lead at 7:26. The puck bounced to McDavid at the left face-off circle and he stepped around defenseman Olli Maatta before making a backhand pass to Draisaitl.

"We haven't been good at holding that lead," McDavid said. "We have to find a way to switch those timely goals around. I thought we generated a bit of momentum on the power play and had some good chances. It's something to build off of, I guess."

Malkin gave Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead, finishing a pass from Kessel on a rush.

"Edmonton's a good hockey team, they've got a lot of offensive weapons, they're a dangerous team off the rush in particular," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "I thought, for the most part, we had a pretty solid effort 5-on-5."

Edmonton outshot Pittsburgh 11-6 in the third period and had two late opportunities to tie the game.

Murray made a save on Maroon on a rebound with 56 seconds left, and another on Nugent-Hopkins with 13 seconds remaining. A few seconds prior to Nugent-Hopkins' chance, Hornqvist and Crosby missed an opportunity to score into an empty net.

"When you're going down, you don't really know how much time is left on the clock," Crosby said. "You're kind of hoping that it ticks down before they get back in our end. But we just couldn't find a way to put it in, and they've got time, they're quick, and they're waiting for that chance to come back the other way."

Edmonton has lost two straight and four of its past five (1-3-1).

"We just have to find ways to win hockey games right now," Maroon said. "We are not winning them, and we can sit here and talk about what we need to do, but enough is enough, and we just have to find ways to win these games."

Highlight of the game

They said it

"We're working our tails off every night, that's not the issue. It's just little subtle mistakes here and there, little lapses in judgment, and that's been hurting us. Tonight we tried to stay on our toes and just play an overall solid game and I think we did that." -- Penguins goaltender Matt Murray

"The pattern is similar to the way it's been for a lot of games. We give up a goal late in the period, and whether it ties it up or changes things, we come out in the third period and do have those power-play opportunities and we didn't do much with them. Then they get their opportunity, and there's a good chance they're going to get one at some point the way the game is going, and they make good on it." -- Oilers coach Todd McLellan

Need to know

Nugent-Hopkins scored his 100th NHL goal in his 406th game. … McDavid has seven points (two goals, five assists) in four games against Pittsburgh but has yet to win against the Penguins, including a 2-1 overtime loss on Oct. 24. … Pittsburgh has won its past five games in Edmonton.